Brandymore Castle

When I was about five years old I began having experiences of things that stuck in my mind. I would see something, encounter something, and I would freeze for a moment. When I think of it now, I realize this was "noticing" the whatever-it-was, but very intensely, compared to other things, for a moment. I noticed the freshly washed sheets my grandmother had hung on the clothesline to dry, billowing in the breeze. I saw this from my vantage point sitting in the sandbox. It was memorable for some reason I did not consciously think about then. I was never bored riding in the car on family trips because I was constantly entertained by noticing all the details of everything along the road, there were always things that raised interesting questions in my mind, drew out my curiosity, such as the light on the window in a shop in a strip mall, or the neon lights at night, the stars reflected in the window, the hum of the tires on the highway. On one of my first trips to the beach, I ra...

The Zen master Dogen says we ought "to be actualized by myriad things." I take this to suggest sympathy with the haiku and its process of creating, a poetic form centered on paying attention to things, allowing something to become 'ensouled' or noticed, and thus actualized. The haiku form it itself, has as its purpose to actualize things. For haiku does not exist to tell you about the poet's experience, but to recreate the poet's experience in you . Simply, a haiku is a "canned" actualization, like those joke cans of snakes, where when the hapless victim opens the can, a fake snake jumps out. It is as if the poet saw a snake, then made the joke can and gave it to you as a way of experiencing the fright he felt upon first seeing the snake. (Who was Dogen? He was a thirteenth-century Japanese Zen master, and the quote is from a well-known passage from Genjo-koan).

I was thinking about the difference between novel writing and haiku poetry. In a novel, detail is included, in a haiku, detail is omitted, except for those exquisite details that distill from the experience to represent it. The advice to writers is to write what you know. A novel or haiku starts with a preexisting experience, something from the life of the writer or from an intense experience ("haiku moment," which is distinct from just having an idea or taking one from memory), which is like a photograph. The haiku may be more photographic than the novel, since the novel requires the author generate much more of the picture. In haiku, the reader supplies half of the picture. This is like painting compared to photography, where each begins with the scene, but the camera captures the scene and the painter generates the scene. Each process may be equivalent, since the photographer manipulates the scene through the camera in much the same way the painter manipulates the scene n...

Through the window comes the sound of melting snow-- a warm breeze. -sek, Oct 2008 It may seem a bit odd, a haiku about early spring just as we are heading into winter, but this one is based on an idea I've been kicking around for some years, trying to capture the experience of listening to the sound of snow melting from all directions through my window on a warm later winter day. I wanted to capture that feeling of prescience and anticipation and only now was able to compose a haiku around it.

Yellow leaves arranged on black branches-- exquisite in the rain. -sek, Oct 2008 Also, more in the Western tradition: Yellow leaves arranged on branches stained exquisite in the rain. -sek, Oct 2008 The use of rhyme is not typical of haiku.

It doesn't matter to me whether I write haiku or senryu or whatever, as long as what I am writing is a satisfying expression of my need to share experience and thought. It would do no good to say a particular poem of mine is senryu and show me how to make it haiku, or to say I should withdraw it because it is not haiku. It isn't the form of poetry that matters. I'm not trying to write haiku , I'm trying to express myself . That's a crucial difference. Beginners want to know how to write haiku. But I what I tell you is that you want to find the form that enables you to express yourself, not learn to write haiku or iambic pentameter. You need to learn from these forms the form that suits you best, or a form in between no one has ever imagined yet. Each form you may take something from, you may move toward one or the other, or among them, but there will be a form that liberates your expression and you should use whatever form that is. Haiku is the just form of express...

Empty sheet of paper-- guide to writing haiku. -sek, May 2008

Maple seeds and songbirds-- ready to fly. -sek, Apr 2008

Blowing on the spark inflames-- a haiku. -sek, Mar 2008

Hybrid rose-- blue sky without rain. -sek, Feb 2008

Happy chickens in bucolic countryside on carton of eggs. -sek, Jan 2008

Unfolding an origami swan-- the grain of paper on the hand. -sek, Jan 2008

Cicada song in the leaves—between the roots generations. -sek, Dec 2007

A single leaf falls--silence of muted strings. -sek, Nov 2007 About fifteen years ago, playing guitar and muting the strings I heard a leaf fall outside, the sound heard through the open window.

The falling rain-- sound comes slowly into focus. -sek, 2007

Reading a book again--drinking flat cola. -sek, Nov 2007 (You can purchase a magnet of this original haiku).

All the eggs in one basket-- running downhill. -sek, Aug 2007

Clouds floating on leaves squirrel quietly eats. -sek, Aug 2007

Woke up to PC-- silk brushes against my face walking between trees. -sek, Aug 2007

A book gathers dust, an award for his father, an award for my father. -sek, Aug 2007